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Saturday, 31 October 2009

Thought I'd share what Ive been making this week. OH has been off work (everyones OH seems to have been off work bothering us this week!) so not much crafty time although he did take the kids out on their own without me a couple of times, its such a rare occasion I took advantage and SLEPT :D

First up we have my "All in a name swap" which is based around items/colours beginning with your initial sooooo for this I used a Violinist that Cath gave me for my buuuurfday last year. Its stamped on starburst stains French lilac Violet that I mixed with some gold radiant rain using a puddle method (will show you soon!) Its embossed with Moonglow midnight Violet embossing powder which is black with a violet tint. I added a Viola which I pressed from my garden last year and a Verse. This is my regular style of stamping, my comfort zone. I love doing scrappy type cards with lots of DP's but my favourite is to use a high density of colour and a lot of white with few embellishments. PAS cards (Plain and Simple)

Next up is a card for my mate Maz's lil angel Rooooooby doooobs who was 2 on wednesday. They have a cat and I thought of her straight away when I saw this image by Mo Manning. I'm not a cat lover but I really liked this image :) She's coloured with promarkers and copics and I edged around it with adirondack ink which I can never remember the colour but its pink! The flowers have been glamour dusted and the papers are papermania exquisite I fink!

And lastly these are just 2 of 16 I've sent off to Shell this week for her cards for the troops drive. I thought I'd go along the line of cards for babies that daddy can send home as many will have babies they may not even have met yet. I made them pretty simple in design as I put the work into the colouring and they've all got dashes of glitter and sparkle on them. They're all slightly different either in the colouring or backgrounds. Actually I have been pretty active this week afterall lol!

Monday, 26 October 2009

I've made quite a simple halloween card this time. I put my energies into the backgrounds and the colouring rather than embellishments. Image is Little Witchy available at Dewdrop Craftz

I coloured with promarkers then distressed around her with milled lavender distress ink and whilst that was still wet I brushed over some versamagic chalk ink so that also bled in. The background is encaustic wax using orange for one layer then a mix of orange and purple mixer for the bottom layer which gives a spooky feel to it. I've cut just the witch out and coloured again and made that bit 3d.

Sunday, 25 October 2009

Firstly I'd like to say Thank You to Nikki at Dewdrop craftz for asking me to be on her new design team which I have accepted as I luuuurve her stamps! If you've not heard of them before pop on over. They're a bit different, they have been doing manga type stamps for a good 18 months, they also do some cuties & floral too!

Onto my challenge card! Oh have I had a ball with this digiz from Dewdrop, she's called Snow Fairy and my first thought is obviously blues but I wanted to see how she looked in christmas colours instead and quite pleased with the result.

I distressed the edge of the image using versamagic in aloe vera, oasis green and hint of pesto then overstamped a swirl design (HOTP) in brilliance pearlescent ivy.

For the background I used a small stamp you get in the plate set of butterfly beauties by Tracey Coates for The Stampman and just repeated it to make a panel (pearlescent Ivy)

I then swiped around the card to distress using the same colours as the image panel and went over the card using moonglow pigment powders in Spanish Moss. The word panel is made with a circle stamp and I painted the inside with starburst stains in maidenhair fern green and cathedral pines green.

Friday, 23 October 2009

This tutorial is for blending using just 2 colours to achieve various tones and shades. The image I have chosen is Butterfly Swirl digiz courtesy of Dewdrop Craftz. She's only £1.99 if you want to download her.

I specifically chose this stamp for the tutorial because its 1. Scary 2. A challenge and 3. Gorgeous! I know a few people have mentionned they don't know where to start with this stamp and I think it will show off very effectively how to blend so that any other stamp you colour in will be a breeze. I resized to 4 inches tall for the example as this is a nice size to work with and will fit on your square cards.

You can colour any image using the same technique.

Firstly lets look at how the pens work. If you have ever watercoloured you will know that dropping paint onto a wet surface will cause it to spread out and blend. Painting onto a dry surface will leave a hard edge. Promarkers and copics work just the same, they have a wet and dry state. The example on the left shows the bleed from adding a line to an area still wet and on the right adding a line over a dry colour. The one on the left bleeds out more. Going over the dark colour again will make it bleed out into your light colour creating a tone.

Shall we start? Give yourself plenty of time to do this, kick back and relax and firstly colour in the skin tone as per the previous tutorial here (Vanilla and pastel pink)
Paperwise I use either Stampin up whisper white or tesco finest printer paper. Bristol board is also popular but soooo expensive!
OK off we go!
Choose a very light colour and a very dark colour of the same group. In the example I have chosen pale pink and mulberry promarkers (Joanna Sheen sells these)
You could use your pastel pink again and a darker pink but select what you have so long as its a light and dark. Decide where your light source is, I have chosen from the left. Start with your light shade and colour in parts of the image such as the dress and hair. I work in segments for this image. Now I must mention here that each time I colour in the image I might decide one line is hair and the next time its part of the wing, its part of the fun so dont worry too much, colour in what YOU think is the hair and dress leaving the wings for now. Leave the parts nearest your light source white for now.

(Your light source is where you imagine the sun is so areas furthest away will be shaded and those nearest will be lighter) To create some tone touch the nibs of your light and dark together to pick up some colour and starting from the area that will be darkest colour in and push up into the lighter area leaving some original light and white showing as the 2nd pic below shows. You might want to do this a couple of times until you're happy with the tones achieved.

Whilst your ink is still WET run a line of your darkest across. Then using your light pen, colour straight over this pushing it upwards. This will give more tones but a bit darker. Repeat as required again leaving some original light and white behind. When you're happy let it dry off a little and add your dark to give you a shadow.

This is how we should be looking. Take it slowly, you'll get quicker with practice!

When you're happy with the results you have for the dress and hair move onto the wings. As I said previously it doesnt matter which bits you choose to colour in, leave some blank, do some darker or lighter its part of the fun with this stamp :)

To do the wings I have switched the colours so my dominant colour is now the darker tone. Colour and blend as before as the pic shows in progress.

And the finished result! Not bad for 2 colours :) If you're really lucky and have a copic spica glitter pen in clear you can bling this up with some sparkle :D

I hope this is of some use and you practice your blending. Once you master the technique you'll be able to colour anything!

Wednesday, 21 October 2009

Today I have the pleasure of being a Guest designer on Copics Colour Challenge. Their colour choice this week being V17 Amethyst, G99 Olive & YR68 Orange.

Image is a digital called Kimono 2 by Carly for Dewdrop Craftz. Isn't she just adorable!

I've made a gatefold card (again!) The front panels are starburst stains in Cocoa bean copper and Saxifrage Olive Copper. The flower was originally white so I coloured it with copic pens in V12, V04 & V17 and painted it with Shimmerz pixie dust. I printed out a smaller Kimono 2 image and coloured it the same as inside using California Poppy Gold as a wash around the image.

The inside panels are the same as the front and I made the circle with Poinciana Flame Red, California Poppy Gold and Red Hot Poker Orange I think it looks a bit like Jupiter, thats the fun with starburst stains you never know how things will turn out, part of the surprise!I stamped and embossed an oriental branch using moonglow midnight emerald which is a black embossing powder that has a hint of green.

On the fan and bobbles I also used a clear spica glitter pen which is absolutely fab for that touch of sparkle without changing the colour underneath. So glad I bought 2 at port sunny as I can see me going through these quickly!

I also coloured the gemstones with the V17 to match the dress and drew on some birds.Thanks for looking and I appreciate your comments x

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

No new cards today instead I have been colouring in images to make into quick cards for Shells cards for the troops drive. I have so far coloured in Mo Mannings Kai in the Snow 16 TIMES! Lol lol! After that I unwound by doing some blending using dewdrop craftz Butterfly Swirl digiz. This is absolutely perfect to take your blending skills a step further. If you're anything like me and feeeeeel the neeeeeeeed to challenge yourself then look no further than this fab fab fabulous digiz. Can't wait to get them made up into cards with the starburst stains (of course!) to really set them off.

I'm also itching to play more with the Tracy Coates Butterfly Beauties set I just got and the mini brayer I bought at Port Sunny (still in the bag *blush*)

Anyway must prioritise and Shell's cards are first then who knows where I'll go next lol!

Here's a sneak peek before they all get made up into cards. The butterfly swirl I've done a blue/green one and a pink/purple one and they are sooooo relaxing. Sometimes you're not sure which bit is the hair or the wings but it doesn't matter one jot so long as you have fun :)They're all done in promarkers. I'm thinking of another tutorial using this stamp as the colours aren't close as per the chart but they blend very well regardless.

And here's a couple of Kai in the snow. I've done 16 of them all slightly different (I think lol!) I like the pink and white one the best which I used the copic spica clear pen on the white bit so its all sparkly but prob wont show for the camera so I put a pink/green one on instead.

Monday, 19 October 2009

A quick note from my friend Shell over at Challenge Addict. Shell is collecting cards for our troops in Afghanistan to send back home to their loved ones so if you have any spare particularly xmas cards pop over to Shells blog for details.

This is my DT entry for Crafty Cardmakers challenge 6 - Autumn!I also used the sketch from Passion for Promarkers so I'm entering that too. Lisa on our team also used the sketch which made me laugh when I received her card, great minds hunny!

Its a gatefold card which I'm quite enjoying doing at the moment! Outside panels are starburst stains in cocoa bean coffee and Cathedral pines green. The flower is a lollipop flower made from various scraps of starburst stains I have around. I embossed the panels with the divine swirls embossing folder.

The inside the panels are cathedral pines green which I debossed (turned the card back to front) Added some punched flowers and leaves from the SS scraps. Background paper is starburst stains in reds, oranges and brown. Image is Rian by Elisabeth Bell coloured with promarkers.

Around the edge of the image I've used a stampscapes oak tree branch stamp. Firstly I used versamagic in aloe vera going quite far into the image. Moved the stamp further back and did a layer of hint of pesto which is darker green then moved towards the edge and stamped in brilliance coffee bean. This gives a sense of depth.

Tuesday, 13 October 2009

I've had my eye on this stamp plate for a couple of weeks after seeing some examples of it on The Stampman blog and I bought it at Port Sunny over the weekend. Its by Tracey Coats and is called Butterfly Beauties.I'm entering this into the following challenges.

Image was stamped and embossed using kaleidoscope embossing powder which changes colour from blues and greens through to reds and oranges the more you heat it giving a rainbow effect.I then watercoloured the image with starburst stains in California poppy gold, Cocoa bean copper and Poinciana Flame red The skin was coloured in promarkers using Ivory, blush, vanilla and oatmeal.The backing card and cuttlebug panels were made with a mix of cocoa bean copper and Cathedral pines greenThe dressline is another stamp you get in Tracey's set which is fab!Thanks for looking x

Sunday, 11 October 2009

Back from the very sunny Port Sunny (it never rains there!) Had a fabulous time and bumped up my promarker collection so between that and Judy selling me hers I've nearly got a full house :DI also got some Glamour dust which Tab uses all the time and when I was looking for it I kept thinking "Glimmered and Glamoured" which is her catchphrase lol!I got a new flower punch and leaf punch and copic spica and a stampavie stamp woo hoo! But leaving the best till last....I got some starburst stains & moonshadow ink I'd run out of and couldnt resist the gorgeous new plate by Tracey Coates from The Stampman - Butterfly Beauties What really appeals to me about this plate was the fact you can colour it with your promarkers/copics as well as having a play with embossing. I have plans for this one I does!If you're not a colourer er er er have a look at the Starburst fairies, great with a brayer or starburst stains these!

I also met up with the delightful Jill & Ian from The Stampman, here's Jill doing a SS demo.

Jill has thrown down a challenge or two for me, oooh challenge! The only set of SS I don't have is Japanese Gardens so she gave it to me and challenged me to see what I can do with it! Right, yer on lol lol!! Fankoo Jill *mwha* She'll also be on create and craft on tuesday, check it out!

Whilst I was chatting to Jill one of the traders I see there EVERY time came along. I turned to Jill and said "You know every time I see that lady I think she looks just like Kim Reygate" Errrr thats because it IS Kim Reygate!!! OMG she's cardmaking ROYALTY!I think Jill is probably still chuckling about the look on my face hahaha! You see if anybody is responsible for my addiction to ink its Kim Reygate. She has such a beautiful way with colour and her work is very distinctive, she's been a major influence on the things I do. If I hadn't have been so excited I would have remembered I had a Kim inspired ATC in my box right there lol!

Right better get this shown coz the clock is ticking!

Oh yes Mo Manning has got herself a challenge blog and my mate Sheilakins is also on the DT! Well done Sheila, I'm soooo pleased for you (and a tad envious lol!)The opening challenge is to use "Perple" as its Bella & Bronte's favourite colour. Actually I saw a little girl in the supermarket the ther day who looked just like Bella, had a little chuckle to myself! Don't tell me it probably was lol lol!So what have I done with this one?Image is Holly Fairy and I went for grey with the perple coz I'm doing a swap on crafty carmaking yahoo group and its Grey and own choice so seeing as I've never done grey and perple before I thought I'd give it a whirl :)

Hair is perple, all coloured wiv promarkers. Dress is grey and I went over it with shimmerz pixie dust. Perple paper and flowers are starburst stains Jazzy Jivin Purple. Flower centres are just grey card and I glamour dusted them

Thursday, 8 October 2009

But I'm not doing any challenges this week because saturday is PORT SUNNY woo hoo!! I'm busy making ATC's at the mo and giving the house a bit of a workover, gawd why do Vax's have to be soooo heavy, I'm still stiff from washing all the carpets on tuesday.

Must fly, have a ton of laundry, dishes and kids toys to clear away then I might get a few minutes to colour in some ATC's (yeah and I bet the kids will wake up just then too humph!)

Monday, 5 October 2009

The challenge this time over at Crafty Cardmakers is to use Ribbons, fibres, lace or anything similar somewhere on your design. Nice n easy eh!

I decided to make a notebook to give my BIA a run out! I love making notebooks I does!

If you don't have a bind it all machine fear not! Go and have a look in any stationary section and pick up the notebooks on offer. Don't get spiral bound, you will be there forever taking the covers off! Look at the inside back and it should be an "O ring" type one like this....

These prise apart easily allowing you to take the covers off and leaving the paper still on the loops.

You just need to find some suitable backing paper and cover it like doing a school book. Glue your paper on and ALLOW TO DRY COMPLETELY. Once dry you can put the holes back in by shoving a pair of scissors through them :) If the glue is still wet you will tear the paper whereas if its dry they cut back through easily. I also cut out a piece of card for the insides of the covers to cover where the backing paper is folded over and for a more professional looking finish.

They are so easy to make and well received. Little girls absolutely love them with their names on so have a go for some xmas handmade gifts!

Here's my one using the BIA....

I've made the covers with mountboard TIP: Ask your local picture framers if they have any scrap mountboard, they're normally glad to give it to you for free!

I've then covered it with some paper dyed with starburst stains and also used this for the matting card. The image is Victoria Case "Sitting Fairy" coloured with promarkers. There is a black hair tutorial here if you want to have a go at that!I've used adirondack ink with some cut n dry foam around the image in blue and painted the wings with shimmers pixie dust. Then I put the covers back on and tie small lengths of ribbon onto each hoop. I tend to use 3 lengths per hoop for a bit of bulk.

Sunday, 4 October 2009

OK OK I know I said I wasn't making any Christmas cards this year. I've done it for the last 6 years and I get to know more and more crafty people every year and oh god no! I can't face making christmas cards again haha! Seriously! I will be making *some* to post to various groups but they will be donated to the local church group.I wasn't going to make any until that pesky Mo Manning came up with this one!

I also seem to have resolved the printer ink issue! I've printed this onto SU whisper white which is brilliant for ink and rubber stamping but not very good with digis. I got some new ink carts and tried them out on the SU and no bleed yippeeee!

Anyway what am I entering this for....

Passion for Promarkers - Cool Aqua, Apricot and a flower.I don't have apricot yet so have used honeycomb on the hair (which means I cant get the prize but hey ho!)

Image is of course Pesky Mo Manning called Christmas Fairy Holly. She's coloured with promarkers using mainly cool aqua, blue pearl and sky blue. Pastel green, mint green, emerald and pine for the leaves, almond, blush and vanilla for the skin, vanilla, honeycomb and chestnut for the hair. She's mounted on starburst stains in tibetian poppy teal and the background cuttlebug embissed are also starburst stains. I coloured the snowglobe, edge of holly, the flowers and around the edge of the image with shimmerz pixie dust and added some xmas confetti to corners and flower centres.

Oooh I've won another blinkie :D:D:D This was also for the image wallet, seems to be very lucky that one! Thank You Crafty Catz for choosing me! If you havent seen this challenge blog before go and check them out. The girls are doing a lovely job!

Saturday, 3 October 2009

Some of you may wonder what on earth these are that I refer to in practically every post lol! They've becomme a kind of trademark as I use them on nearly every card, its coz I luuuuuurve them so much!

Starburst Stains are part of the Moonglow range of products by Lindy's Stamp Gang. They are sold in the UK via The Stampman.

If you go to a show and The Stampman is there then you're guaranteed to see some kind of demo of them. Watch in awe along with the crowd that gathers and see how mesmerised people are then they rush to go and buy some! Yes they really are THAT good!

So what are they?

Well they are shiny, sparkly dyes in beautiful colours such as Maidenhair fern green (my favourite) and Tibetian poppy teal. You can buy them in sets that compliment each other or as individuals. Try as you might you cannot replicate them, trust me I tried! The are one of the Moonglow lines, have a looksie at them here

Moonglow also do other products, 2 of my other favourites are Moonshadow inks and the embossing powders. Moonshadow, if you love to use brown on your cards have a look at these, they are walnut inks with a twist of beautiful colours. They look stunning mixed together.

Of the embossing powders the "Midnight" range are my favs. They are black embossing powders with a sheen of a colour so Midnight Teal is black with a green tint, absolutely gorgeous! (Reminds me I need to top up at port sunny on them!)

I also have some glitz spritz and pigment powders!

So maybe you're not lucky enough to see a live stampman demo but might like to try them so what do you do? There are a number of techniques listed on the stampman site here or pop over to their blog as they also list upcomming shows and TV appearances.

I'll give you a brief demo of the scrunch technique. I use these sheets as backing for notebooks, handmade flowers, backing papers etc etc.

This is my personal collection lol!

STARBURST STAINS SCRUNCH TECHNIQUE

Lay a sheet of plain copier paper down. Make sure surfaces are well protected. These are called STAINS for a reason! I use them on the oven hob as its wipe clean. With a large brush slap on your base colour so your sheet is nice and wet.

With a second colour drop some onto your base colour. Splodge it, splash it just play and have fun (its kinda relaxing too!)

You can choose however many or few colours you like, I've done 3 in this example.

OK when you're happy, fold your paper over (like making butterflies at school!) in half then pick it up and scrunch it into a ball. Some of the the excess dye will run out so catch it on a separate piece of paper or kitchen roll as they can all be used too!

Open it back out again and ooooh pretty patterns!

Now then set the oven to about 200 degrees. No I'm not joking here lol lol! If you're just doing one sheet use the heatgun to dry it, be careful as it can scorch easily! You can also set them aside to dry, hang them on the washing line etc. I'm too impatient so when I'm doing a batch I use the oven.

Place your sheet(s) in the oven and they will be dry in about a minute. If putting more than one sheet in at a time then just keep taking the top one off until you get to the bottom.

My mate actually came round whilst I was doing this and said Mmm what you cooking? Errr paper love! Ooooooh kayyyyy!

Your sheets should now be dry and all sparkly and nice! You get different results every time, mixing different colours also produces a nice 3rd colour such as ramblin rose pink and yellow rose of texas - a nice orangy colour :)

Remember I said about catching the excess dyes? Well also when you've finished with your paintbrushes, run these over a sheet too before washing them as it might just be what you're looking for one day! This card below, the image was stamped on a sheet I'd dryed the brushes off on after a session :)

Just a little warning - they are ADDICTIVE! Plus the fact its quite theraputic watching all the patterns emerge that you kind of get lost in thought for 10 minutes so please be aware of where your children are and what they are doing! I turn my back for a few minutes and what do I get?